Autumn is obviously approaching, as ideas are once again flooding what’s left of my brain, and the need to organize the days becomes essential if I want to have a chance of doing everything and maybe be able to pay the bills. So…
Nice and smooth.
Continue readingSo I spent most of last night listening to some music (I’m currently on a Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Incidents bender) and fitting together the little pieces of a short story based on the guidelines I posted yesterday.
You know, the one about the wrong sort of leading lady.
It was not easy, it required a lot of staring at the screen and playing solitaire and what not.
But finally, I got all the bits and pieces in place, and the mechanism worked like, well, clockwork, while still leaving me enough margin to improvise and keep the narrative lively.
It’s the last day of 2014.
Time for wrapping-up the year that’s going, and set down good propositions for the year to come.
But I do not believe that much in recaps and prologues… I’m taking a day at a time, doing the best I can.
At the moment, there is little else I can do. Continue reading
A short report on the state of my writing, in case someone’s interested.
The final revision of the definitive edition of my Italian-language, non-fiction, “pulp history” book Il Crocevia del Mondo (Crossroads of the World) is done.
Now I’m reading handbooks and websites to learn how to go about putting the thing up on the Kindle Store.
Once it’s done, I’ll be curious to see how it fares.
Hopefully, I’ll arrange for the publishing in July, and for a blog tour promoting it in september.
My Corsair project, about a pulp adventurer at play in the Mediterranean between the wars has just shifted and mutated into something a bit later – say set in the early 60s – but still with the same set-up and the same cast.
A tentative story (working title The Girl from Uncle) is under way – I promised it to my friend Chiara (who’s an UNCLE fan and suggested the story’s opening), so I can’t let it lay for long.
ETA for the Girl is august.
There might be an Italian-language story coming – even tho’ I said I will not write fiction in Italian anymore – should the Alia project take wing again.
The original idea was doing a space opera-themed anthology, but already I heard stuff about stories involving elven warrior-princesses, so maybe the space opera angle is gone.
Pity.
The deadline is september – I’ll have to dream up something.
I’m also grappling with a naughty story for an adult market, but that’s a hush-hush thing, so no more details.
But it’s really a learning experience – they say write what’s unfamiliar and does not make you feel at ease, well, in this case I nailed it.
And finally something burst trough my neocortex two days ago, and is currently haunting me and my keyboard – once again a pulpish thing, an attempt at playing my own take on the mystical adventurer cliché.
Something borrowing from both Indiana Jones and The Shadow – taking what I consider the best bits from the characters, and trying to find a balance.
H.P. Lovecraft’s spirit is also hovering by as I write.
I blame my recent readings for this unespected but so far highly satisfactory writing bout – the first 300 words screamed out of my fingers and onto the screen, and they kick some butt, if I say so myself. The rest is a little more tricky, but when one starts so good, it’s a crime dropping the story.
I’ll probably post more about this, as writing what’s bugging me helps me solve the bugging bits – and I may as well do it in public.
I’ve no ETA for this one, but I’d love to try and making it available through the web at a popular fee (say 99 eurocents).
And the as yet undisclosed translation project is still going – as you can see from the meter here on the right.
It’s tough going, but it’s a fun project.
And this is it, I guess.
More news as stuff happens.
Cheers!
Karavansara 